Marina Cay expansion approved

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

The Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee Thursday approved a request by Marina View Estates, LLC, for a conditional use permit to construct a 17-unit, multi-family dwelling on 3.15 acres just west of Marina Cay.

The 16,000-square-foot building currently situated on the property at 180 Vista Lane houses a 200-person banquet facility, a restaurant, a sports bar, a tiki bar and a lounge. The property also holds the Marina Cay marina, a swimming pool and a parking area.

Fred Sterhan, co-owner of Marina Cay and Marina View Estates, proposes to replace the old building with a 22,400-square-foot structure with two conference rooms, a restaurant, a tavern, a lobby and parking garage in addition to the 17 condominiums.

The building’s “footprint” on the land would still be 7,500 square feet, the same as the current structure, he said.

Approval of the project required a conditional use permit because the property is zoned for community business rather than residential use.

Sterhan said the proposed structure would solve most of the complaints from neighbors regarding parking and other issues because its capacity would be about 150 people compared with the current building’s 470-person capacity.

The condominiums would increase residential use of the property, which would reduce commercial use and thus reduce traffic, he said.

“The building there now is a disaster,” Sterhan said. “We fixed, I believe, 95 percent of the problems.”

Nicole Lopez-Stickney of the county Planning and Zoning Office noted that an unnamed internal driveway would have to be named to allow emergency responders to find it. The office recommended approval of the project, she said.

George Darrow, who owns four acres between Grand Avenue and Bigfork Bay, immediately west of the proposed project, complained that stormwater from the project could drain onto his property and contaminate the wetland there with oil, antifreeze and other pollutants.

Sterhan assured Darrow and his wife, Elna, that allowing drainage onto their property was “something we’re not going to do.” Later he spoke privately with the Darrows about their concerns.

Marina View Estates had proposed handling stormwater runoff with a 1,500-gallon catchbasin that would filter out gravel, solids and oil so that only water would drain from the basin. The basin would hold the water as it slowly drained into the soil.

Several members of the public expressed concern that dissolved chemical pollutants from cars also would drain out of the basin.

BLUAC member Shelley Gonzales moved to amend the project’s stormwater plan to require that no water drain from Marina View Estates onto other property and that a filtration system be installed to remove pollutants from stormwater before it drained into the ground.

Gonzales’ motion and another motion to approve the Marina View Estates project passed unanimously.

Discussion turned to the final incarnation of the Bigfork Neighborhood Plan, which Gonzales said she’d proofread.

Her only remaining work was to place the maps in the plan, she said. Jeff Harris, director of the county Planning and Zoning Office is “anxious to see this plan,” she said. BLUAC members agreed to hold a “signing party” for the neighborhood plan at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 8, at Bethany Lutheran Church.